Offering Thanks to Newsbusters and Matt Sheffield

One of the most effective, savvy voices in conservative media belongs to my long-time friend Matt Sheffield. He was responsible for creating and launching “Newsbusters,” a web site devoted to monitoring and exposing liberal media bias. Matt just announced that he will be leaving his post at the Media Research Center (MRC), which now operates Newsbusters.

But I’m pleased to report he will be pursuing a book project on the future of conservatism and starting a new syndicated television program. Matt was the ultimate “fusionist.” He brought in traditionalists, libertarians, religious conservatives, and those who were more secular. His book will devote time and attention to how the conservative movement can appeal to Americans who are not particularly religious but very devoted to limited government. Being a Christian conservative myself, we’ve had some great conversations and I have to concede the point that the movement has maxed itself out with certain blocs of voters.

During my time at CNSNews.com, also a part of the MRC, Matt was kind enough to bring me into the Newsbusters fold and I never looked back. I always thought the articles we did describing how the media covered (and did not cover) the global warming/climate change debate were among the most important contributions. Over the past few years, we’ve been able to demonstrate that a growing number of skeptics in the scientific community now question the premise of man-made global warming theories. Thanks to the Heartland Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), and others, I think this debate has been won. But I would submit that it was Newsbusters that did the most to expose the media echo chamber that uncritically pumped out alarmist material.

It took a lot of vision, and no small amount of backbone, to push back against well-funded pressure groups and their apologists in journalism. I thank Matt very much for providing the movement with such a valuable and effective platform.